In fairness, I'm not completely comparing like for like in that video. I am doing realistic 3d engine stuff of creating one view matrix to represent the orientation and location of the camera, a separate transformation matrix to represent the orientation and location of the model, then composing the two in order to transform and project the geometry.
But, compared to Elite I am using Euler angles to represent orientation. That means that I regenerate both matrices from scratch every single frame. Elite is more likely to be maintaining an orientation matrix for each object and adjusting it every frame, which means substantially more work there but allows the Elite sort of rotation and movement. So I'm not doing some expensive per-object stuff that Elite is. Also, I'm still not quite yet doing any vector clipping to the viewport. So I'm not yet paying for some cheap extra tests and some not-so-bad linear algebra whenever a line crosses a plain. However, I do have several avenues of future optimisation to pursue, some algorithmic (mostly to do with mirroring), some machine level (I reckon I can cut 20-30% off the cost of all my multiplies but it means changing number representation slightly). I almost certainly am not actually going to implement anything very much like Elite, as I've not only seen the original source code but was also a listed contributor to Elite: The New Kind, the direct C conversion of the 6502 original that David Braben exercised his legitimate copyright powers to remove from the 'net. So, legally, I'd just be asking for trouble. The key point is: even when I do all that, I'll still be at best 50% as fast as Dead Wild Cat. And I'm still curious as to why. On Fri, May 16, 2008 at 10:04 AM, Colin Piggot <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Thomas wrote: >> I'm not doing too terribly (see >> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcMiB1ZkukM >> for my attempt at a Cobra Mk 3 versus the Spectrum original), > > Great work! > > >> Dead Wild Cat.... > > Never looked at the disassembly of that, but can remember the distorted > perspective when it was running. > > Colin > ===== > Quazar : Hardware, Software, Spares and Repairs for the SAM Coupe > 1995-2008 - Celebrating 14 Years of developing for the SAM Coupe > Website: http://www.samcoupe.com/ > >
